EXCLUSIVE: Did 'Bachelor' Ben Higgins secretly make out with a contestant on premiere night? Ben tells all!

After telling ET before the show started that he wanted to hold off on the physical stuff, and reiterating that during the premiere, Ben Higgins was caught locking lips with Mandi (who came out of the limo with a giant rose on her head, by the way) in a shot that didn't make air.

Ben believes that this is ultimately why the steamy-looking smooch didn't make air.

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The Bachelor season 20 contestants, Ben Higgins

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EXCLUSIVE: Did 'Bachelor' Ben Higgins secretly make out with a contestant on premiere night? Ben tells all!

THE BACHELOR - Ben Higgins, the handsome software salesman who was sent home by Kaitlyn Bristowe last season on "The Bachelorette," confessed to Kaitlyn that he thought he was "unlovable." Even so, he saw a "great life" with her, only to have his hopes dashed and his heart broken when he was left without a rose. Now, Ben is ready to open himself up again to love, but he still has the lingering fear of being unlovable. He will attempt to put his heartbreak behind him and overcome that fear as he searches for his one true love and, maybe more importantly, a woman who loves him back. (ABC/Craig Sjodin)

As for the decision to keep Mandi around -- Ben talked about that too.

"Mandi's very intriguing – she's somebody I wanted to get to know," he said. "There's no encouragement [by the show] – it's kind of my experience and my journey, and I'm not going to say I don't make mistakes along the way. I do."

"There are maybe things I would've done differently if I'd had more information," Ben admitted. "But watching last night and seeing how this whole story unfolds, I'm glad I'm walking into next week with the women that I kept on night one."